Research of the Ukrainian Podcasters' Market by MEGOGO

MEGOGO presents the results of an all-Ukrainian research into the podcasting industry, which provides up-to-date information on the state of the podcast market in Ukraine. MEGOGO is an international streaming service, as well as a leader among OTT platforms in Ukraine, operating in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the South Caucasus.

The online survey of professionals was conducted from July 10 to August 18, 2023, and 138 qualitatively completed questionnaires were received. The results were analyzed, and the analytical team of the MEGOGO mediaservice prepared the data.

MEGOGO explains that market research and the public presentation of its results to a wide range of professional communities and stakeholders is an important part of the development of any industry. The MEGOGO mediaservice has been developing the audio sector of the platform since 2019, and in 2021, introduced the Slushno podcast award to recognize the best in the profession. The research and free access to the information is our strategic decision. We believe that the survey results will be useful for all market players.

You can download slides as a PDF here.

Who makes up the Ukrainian podcaster market?

The gender distribution was almost equal, with 6% more male podcasters than female. 46.4% of the respondents are in the age group of 28-34, and 57% of them live in the capital of Ukraine.

What do they do for a living?

• Mass Media - 24.6%
• Culture (writing, cinema, theater, other art projects, publishing, cultural management) - 18.8%.
• IT (development, testing, project and product management, etc.) - 13%.
• Communications (PR, SMM, marketing, advertising, etc.) - 13.8%.

70.3% indicated that they are independent podcasters

The active development of podcasting in Ukraine has been growing over the past 4 years, as 84.4% of respondents started their activities during this period. The most productive year for new podcasts in Ukraine was 2022, as 28.1% of respondents indicated that they started their podcasts during this time, which is the highest percentage for the entire period of podcasting in Ukraine.

88.1% said that they are still working on their podcasts, and 48.9% of them have a permanent team working on the podcast. For 15.6%, creating podcasts is their main activity today.

Worldview

Self-development, self-expression, and promotion of a personal brand are important for podcasters, as 49.5% of them said they address this need by creating a podcast. 15% of the authors surveyed said that they use podcasts to solve the problem of insufficient coverage of a particular topic in the information space.

The most popular podcast categories in Ukraine:

• Culture and Arts (literature, cinema, theater and music, architecture, etc.) - 38.4%.
• History and Society (documentaries, history podcasts, investigations, civil society, rights and freedoms) - 28.3%.
• News (analytics, reviews, digests, conversations with experts) - 23.9%.
• Education - 22.5%.

What is the most popular podcast format in Ukraine, what frequency of release, and number of plays

60.1% of Ukrainian podcasters work only with an audio format and 91.3% of them release episodes monthly. 94.9% said that the optimal length of a podcast episode is up to 1 hour. 79.7% indicated that they have an average of up to 3,000 plays per episode, but 57.2% of respondents consider up to 5,000 plays to be a successful indicator for themselves.

How many podcasts were released in 2022 and plans for 2023

Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine created the need to speak out and be heard by starting a podcast, hence 28.1% of respondents beginning in 2022. In the same year, 66.7% released 1 to 4 podcasts. As of August 2023, 68.8% of respondents have already released 1 to 4 podcasts, and 38.4% indicate that they plan to release 5 or more podcasts in 2023, which means that podcasting is now trending.

As of August 2023, podcasters had already released the same number of podcasts as in 2022, and they plan on releasing even more. It should be noted that the full-scale war had a negative impact on development trends, and many studios did not have enough resources to launch/start new podcasts/projects last year.

Podcast Monetization

45.7% of respondents have already implemented monetization for podcasts and 36.2% are only planning to do so. For monetization, 60% use community support (Patreon, Buy Me a Coffee, YouTube sponsorship, their own support system, and so on), 43.2% use grant opportunities, and 43.2% are looking for collaboration with commercial brands.

What the podcast market lacks in Ukraine

According to audio content creators and authors, 24.7% said that there is a lack of podcast listeners in Ukraine, while 21.6% claimed there was a shortage of advertising and advertisers, and 14.4% cited a lack of diversity in audio content.

The survey of Ukrainian podcasters was conducted from July 10 to August 18, 2023, with 138 qualitatively completed questionnaires processed, and the margin of error is 6.63% with a 90% confidence interval.

“Today in Ukraine there are no statistics/records on the number of podcast authors. But we can hypothetically calculate the average number of podcasts per author of audio content. Analyzing 369 rights holders on the MEGOGO mediaservice who have released 738 podcasts, we conclude that, on average, one rights holder releases 2 podcasts. According to listennotes.com, 2544 podcasts are publicly available in Ukraine (as of October 18, 2023). Therefore, extrapolating the average number of podcasts per rights holder, we assume there are about 1272 podcast rights holders in Ukraine. We calculated the hypothetical number to understand the survey’s margin of error and confidence interval,” the research department of the MEGOGO mediaservice notes.

The survey questionnaire consisted of 30 questions, including the author’s portrait and geography, the process of working on podcasts, genres and formats, monetization, and a general section on the authors’ professional and personal interests in podcasting. The survey was open to anyone involved in podcasting: from independent authors of audio projects to large media, IT companies, and creative agencies that create podcasts under their own brand. The survey was conducted anonymously via Google Forms.

About MEGOGO

MEGOGO is an international mediaservice founded in Kyiv in 2011. It is a leader among OTT platforms in Ukraine. It operates in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the South Caucasus. Also, a part of the catalogue is available worldwide (except for the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus).

MEGOGO’s media library includes thousands of content items, such as TV channels with interactive features, movies, series, cartoons and games, educational and blogging content, audiobooks, podcasts and radio. The media service also exclusively broadcasts sports events, such as the UEFA Champions League, The UEFA Europa League and The UEFA Conference League, top national football championships, boxing from K2 and Top Rank in Ukraine and other countries, organizing production according to the requirements of the rights holders.

MEGOGO is available on Smart TVs, mobile devices, PCs, game consoles, and media players. The service offers HDR and 4K videos with audio tracks in different languages. MEGOGO pays special attention to usability and a personalised recommendation system for users.